Electronics products include chips also known as semiconductor devices. A large number of the chips can typically be manufactured at the same time. A large number of the chips need to be separated or singulated before they can be used since each individual chip can be used in different products.
After semiconductor devices have been created over a substrate, independent operational units, also known as semiconductor dice, are created by singulating the substrate into individual units. This latter process is known as die dicing, a process that is frequently performed by sawing a wafer along die sawing paths that have been provided between and surrounding the semiconductor dice.
A sealring is designed in such a way that it provides a protection to the main chip by preventing cracks, delamination, and mobile ions from entering the main chip resulting from a wafer saw process. Mobile ions include moisture and oxidation components.
In many cases, the sealring is designed with a wider metal width than that permissible in the main chip with the aim to improve the effectiveness of the sealring and the sealring's toughness. However, wider metal width designs in crackstop have a higher tendency of causing arcing resulting from a reactive ion etching (RIE) process.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit system providing the sealring. In view of wafer yield and reliability, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.